Daily Digest: Not Drop-Safe Edition

ExtremeBeam, makers of the 290 lumen XT-8 series of flashlights, introduces The Metal Molle (above). The device transforms the XT-8 into a hands-free angled light with up to 720 feet of projection and three flexible usage settings. It is machined from solid bar-stock aluminum [kudos for not using the ubiquitous “billet” aluminum terminology] and has a limited lifetime warranty that even covers destruction. $29.95 direct from ExtremeBeam for The Metal Molle, right around $100 when combined with your choice of XT-8 flashlight.

The NSSF put out an email blast today saying they learned that the recently launched ATF e-Form system will be going dark due to the government shutdown, so submissions of Forms 1-6 will be back to the standard paper method. In reality, this doesn’t amount to much of a change for the end user since, as the NFA Branch was already in shutdown mode, there wasn’t any processing going on, whatever the method. FBI NICS remains open.

A Tuscaloosa, Alabama man learned the meaning of “not drop-safe” over the weekend, when his .25-caliber gun fell from his hip and fired a shot into his leg while he was grocery shopping at Winn-Dixie Saturday night. (This is why you should shop at Publix.) Police say the bullet traveled up his leg and lodged in his hip. They also say the gun was being carried in a holster at the time, though it’s unclear whether the gun fell out of the holster or the whole package fell and hit the ground together.

South Park is doing its take on Zimmerman/Martin tomorrow night. (Cue the sneering “Does anyone even watch that anymore?” comments. I do. It usually makes me laugh. The sneering comments almost never do. I prefer to laugh. But I digress.) Cartman spends the whole show chasing down Token, who he views as a threat to all humanity. (Token is the show’s only black character, for those of you unfamiliar.) Watch it or don’t as it suits you, or just click over to the YouTube comment section and thank the deity of your choice that you’re not one of those poor, hate-filled bastards.

10/22 design, well there goes the “no purchase necessary” clause, I don’t own a 10/22 I had one for about 20 min as a kid. Just say mine was a POS. I don’t watch south park but I respect how they make fun of everything and every one equally.

As far as I am aware, the creators of south park are libertarian not liberal. I have a feeling they will poke fun at both sides of the trayvon/zimmerman issue. They usually do that. I really hope they don’t take a blatant Trayvon side.

Lately some of the South Park that’s been coming out hasn’t been as good as the stuff they’ve done in the past. It used to be one of my favorite shows, but now about half the episodes they put out are kinda terrible.

If you disagree, go watch the “I Shouldn’t Have Gone Zip-Lining” episode, and look me in the face and tell me that they didn’t pull that one right out of the toilet.

The zip lining one was pretty bad, but Cartman’s indigestion was almost worth my 30 minutes. They made the SNL mistake of taking something that would be funny for a minute or two and stretching it out for a half an hour. By the end it becomes more irritating than funny.

Insert derisive comment about more popular ammunition from a snarky 10mm fan here? I’m afraid I’m at a loss, I just don’t feel smug about my caliber choice, because it works for me and I’m not everyone.

I’m not sure where the billet terminology comes from. Actually, as a metallurgical engineer, to me the term “bar stock” implies a higher degree of reduction than does “billet”, something that should impart better mechanical properties.

It was a reference to a conversation that’s gone on here before about all the companies that say they make things out of “billet aluminum” because that sounds cool/technical/tactical, when they’re really using bar stock (but that doesn’t sound nearly as cool). Most facilities don’t have the facilities to use full-sized billets, since the smallest ones Alcoa distributes are cylinders 6″ in diameter x 18″ long. Not to mention all the waste that would come from machining square parts from cylindrical stock.